My bird’s dead gorgeous. So am I

The designer Jess Eaton, 46, makes fashion out of roadkill. She talks about the delicate process of turning dead creatures into couture

When the alarm goes off at 7.30, my son, Norton, is usually in my bed. He’s
nine and he’ll have climbed in during the night. The minute we’re awake
we’ll have fun, maybe a bit of a tickle, and then I’ll make his breakfast
and get him ready for school. I can’t eat that early, so I’ll just have a
cigarette and a cup of tea.

I’ll then drop Norton at school and head to the shop I run with Jon Nott in
Brighton. We sell all manner of bizarre and beautiful objects, including
pieces from my Roadkill Couture collection, such as squirrel capes, rat-skin
jackets and horsehair hats.

Everything I use is ethically sourced. People call up saying: “I’m on the A3.
I’ve got a badger. Do you want it?” Then there are gamekeepers, who’d rather
bring a sack of culled crows or magpies to us than throw them